Tag Archives: Ruddles County

I went out for some fresh air and of course a pint. Being in West Palm Beach for a few weeks I went downtown to Clematis Street by Night. The city offers an outdoor festival every Thursday with a band, food, arts and crafts and a car show. I didn’t real go down there for that but a place in the heart of all the festivities. The place is called World of Beer.
World of Beer is a very difficult place for a beer geek like me to go. There is so much beer to choose from 40 some odd taps and 600 varieties of beer in the bottle. If your a real beer geek you have to have a plan before you get there and you have to stick to it. My plan was to have a real English ale a Bitters, Mild (hard to find) or an IPA.
Well I get there and the place is packed, they have a special tasting going on for Dog Fish Head. They had 60 minute, 90 minute, 120 minute, The Midas Touch, and about 5 more which I had most all of them before. Nothing against Dog Fish Head and Sam Calagione they have definitely change the way America drinks beer for the better. But I remembered I had a plan and I stuck to my guns.
Well I looked through their English beer selection and found a beer I haven’t had “WOW” just what I’ve been searching for. The beer is called Ruddles County Ale made by Ruddles Brewery in Sufford England.
Like most beer companies in the World Ruddles Brewery is owned by Greene King Brewing Company. Greene King also owns Old Speckled Hen, Belhaven, and the old Hardys and Hansons brewery. For you beer geeks out there the Hardy and Hansons used to brew Thomas Hardy Ale a Barley Wine style beer very hard to find and expensive.
Let me get back to the original beer Ruddles County ale. This beer was everything I expected. The beer had a great big floral hop aroma with hints of caramel, and toffee malt sweetness. The color was a beautiful amber with red highlight and a frothy white head. As you can see from the picture below.
The beer had a crisp hop bitterness with a smooth distinctive flavor of dark toffee and caramel with a malty sweet finish. The mouth feel was a medium body with a spot on low carbonation level and creamy smoothness. The alcohol was 4.7% which to me was an Special Bitter style ale. This is a great session beer something to sit and chat with the mates and enjoy. “Cheers”
The Ale Guy